Month: March 2017 | the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 30, 2017 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

The prompt word is ‘Fault’ for this week’s Six Sentence Story.

New Readers? The Six Sentence Story bloghop is zoe’s weekly dare: ‘Hey! you know the word, ‘Fault’? Never mind what definition, the word, do you know it? Fine. You know how to make up a story? Well, me and my little dog dare you to write a story that involves that word and do it in six and only six sentences. What?!? Fault! Weren’t you listening?! (“Keep your eye on this one Joule. Yeah, ‘ARR’ to you too.“).

It’s challenging and fun, you should join us this week. And you can write anything you’d like. For example, some people are writing serial stories, every Thursday a six sentence installment. Others write amazing set pieces, mood and humor all wrapped up in little six sentence bundles. This week, I’m going to pre-borrow from the next Chapter of ‘Home and Heart’ for a scene to form my Six around. (New Readers: If you’re like me and are constantly trying to improve ‘the skills’, taking a large scene and making it fit into Six Sentences is, like, totally good practice.)

Fault

Sister Catherine looked at the woman who sat in the empty classroom and said, “Thank you for coming in today, Roanne, I’m very concerned about your daughter, Patrice.”

Roanne Avila sat and felt her days as a pupil at St. Dominique’s whisper from the wood and metal of the desk, looked up, her cautious movements forgotten in the memories that grew in her mind, let the wave of an obviously new hairstyle fall to the side of her face; the nun tensed as she saw the smudge of reddish orange at the corner of her former pupil’s eye, an un-noticed stutter in the application of make-up.

Sister Catherine, (though very few would have the suicidal daring to ask, grew up in an orphanage with the unlikely name, ‘the Miami Children Center’, only in part unusual for being in Ohio), knew the palette of abuse, the colors of shame and secret pain, stepped around her desk and crouched next to the young woman, who tried to turn her head away.

“Roanne, look at me,” her tone, while not one of a person only hoping to be obeyed, held a barely noticeable tremor of concern, as she reached with thin, graceful fingers, a plain gold band her sole touch of color and held the younger woman’s chin, far more gently than the wire-rimmed glasses and bleached white wimple framing her face would ever suggest, and turned the woman’s head slightly.

“My husband Roger works so hard at the casino providing for me and the kids, he really is a good man, I shouldn’t complain so much, it’s my fault that he hit me,” the young woman’s voice held more emotions than a single sentence should be able to contain.

Sister Catherine’s touch became stronger yet more gentle, as if holding a child against a sudden onslaught of cold wind, and with eyes that blazed with the un-definable power of a childless mother, said in a whispered shout, “You must never say that, you are entitled to live your life without being hurt by another just because they want someone else to feel as bad as they do.”

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: 'Home and Heart' a Sister Margaret Ryan novel, the Wakefield Doctrine

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “if you’ll just open the book to Chapter 1, we will begin.”

March 27, 2017 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

‘Home and Heart’ (a Sister Margaret Ryan novel)

Hey! Chapter 1 of ‘Heart and Home’ (a Sister Margaret Ryan novel) is out this morning! So, to keep things as simple as possible*, the link will take you to Jukepop which is a site geared towards serial stories. While I hear from some that getting in the first time can be a bit….clunky, the site does offer a certain manageability once the Chapters start to accrue. And it allows comments and reviews and…. votes. You can vote for the story at the end of each chapter because… we never, ever leave high school. (My clark is showing here, as the reality of the world is that people are attracted to what other people like and those stories that have a lot of votes make people curious and they read it and… etc. Go! Skippers!!**) If you have trouble getting into the site let me know and I’ll send you the link to the wordpress site I have setup for the story.

I trust you’ll enjoy.

this just in! the site, jukepop, seems to need to review and approve the new story so here’s the link to the wordpress site:

‘Home and Heart’ (a Sister Margaret Ryan novel)

* again, zoe, with the ‘coals to Newcastle lol

** the name of the high school sports teams in my high school, so many years ago. I did not participate in… wait a minute! I did, in fact participate in high school sports! damn, just remembered it was Track and Field in the spring of my Senior year! I’ll totally have to write a post, but first Chapter 1

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 25, 2017 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Ever find yourself (probably as a kid, ’cause if it happened nowadays, you’d be reading this from a hospital bed) running so fast that your head was leading your feet so much as to create a very real risk of falling. And, despite a patently justified urgency surrounding this sense of disequilibrium, a part of you insists there’s plenty of time to make a decision, (slow down head/speed up feet). That’s kind of how this week ended for me. As a result, I will ask that you bear with me, as my narrative may become somewhat… ‘loosely bound’*

The photo up there? Ola at age … 6 months(?) I have Y-Chrome Syndrome (which, as everyone knows, presents as a marked predisposition towards birthday/anniversary-lexia. Item 3 below will provide a more cogent context.)

1) Lets start with technology as Item 1 on this week’s ‘oT. Pick a device, any device! Phones and computers, cars and cameras. Especially the cameras, which is worthy of note, given I’m a clark. clarks are, of course, famously photophobic. Want a quick way to spot the clark at the family reunion? The person behind the camera, every time.

2) I’ll mention the Wakefield Doctrine here at Number Two, even though (or perhaps, because), I’ll be citing Doctrine chapter and verse throughout the post. All around fun and scary efficacious.¹

3) Phyllis and Una and I were sitting in my ‘office’ while I typed the first draft of this Post and, for some reason, we started talking about Ola, more precisely, we were remembering ‘Ola stories’. I think it started when one of us mentioned Una’s habit of barking when either of us leave in the morning. Phyllis recalled how Ola, as a very young dog, used to sit in the bathtub as we tried to leave for work. Clearly her (Ola, not Phyllis) reasoning was that an Offer like that would not be so easily dismissed. Then there was the time, when Ola was teething, I decided the only safe place to leave her during the day was the kitchen. (We have a smallish galley kitchen, like a squared off ‘U’ cabinets, stove, refrigerator and vinyl floor.) So I blocked off the open end and left Ola with a full water bowl, a bunch of toys and a blanket (and I think the TV was on, for company, of course) and left for work. I happened to get home first that night and I walked through the dining area, (that ‘elled’ into the kitchen), and there was Ola. Sitting perfectly upright in the middle of the kitchen with a pile of vinyl flooring scattered about, the entire floor removed. Ola was looking at me, the way that dogs do so very well, “Hi! Look!! Look at what I did!” (wag wag wag). So I looked at her and said “What a good girl! Such a day’s work!” And Ola’s tail, which had been slowly, modestly wagging, went into full sweep.
We both loved Ola very much. And she loved us.

4) Work…. ayiiee! Always an opportunity to become aware of how frequently fear is a factor in my everyday decision-making. When I’m lucky, I notice it early enough to make a (slightly) different decision.

5) Una. She is the most athletic, (in a Nadia Comaneci sort of way), dog that we’ve had. She has an astounding ability to spring upwards. Like, she’d be standing in front of the couch, and then she be on the couch, no need to flex her muscles, no running start. Four feet on the floor. Four feet on the couch. And, she’s not a big dog, so it’s not like with Bella or Ola, both of whom could simple step up onto the couch.

6) Gravity Challenge…. hard to believe that we’ve been doing this thing for…hold on, let me go look a ling time. damn! Every day except Sunday. You should join us.

7) How about a little BoSR/SBoR Primer…. although everyone pretty much has the idea, i.e. if you find yourself struggling with coming up with as many Items as you had hoped for, or you have a situation and you think it might not qualify as a Grat item, or you’re like me and kinda want to have fun with serious things, then the Book is there. Some one, it might have been, Jo or maybe it was Kerry in any event they restated the concept of ‘hypo-gratitude’ way better than I could…. and it’s that (kind of) approach that makes the TToT such an inclusive and fun ‘hop.

8) Gotta save me a couple of places for the rollout of ‘Home and Heart’ (a Sister Margaret Ryan novel) I’ll post the link to Chapter 1 here and ask those so inclined to go to the jukepop site to read the Chapter and vote (cause they have a thing where you vote and comment and such). I will also be messaging out the Chapter links in ‘the Facebook’ to all of them what indicated an interested.

9) Josie for opening the doors to this place each weekend, welcoming those who have never been here and maintaining the kind of continuity that keeps the best and allows for better.

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* zoe’s lips are now moving, expert lip-readers are looking puzzled as they say, “…coals to Newcastle” (?)

1) I still can’t find the word I’m looking for to describe the quality (of the Doctrine) that denotes having an accuracy of prediction, and further, asserts the validity of groupings of characteristics to one, (of each), of the three personality types. Example: rogers live in a quantifiable world, they like filmmaker Ken Burns’s work… a lot, if they enjoy bicycling, they prefer to wear clothing with the logo of every major corporation, at least as many as will fit; if they have a workshop, (basement or garage), they not only will have an organized workshop, the workshop will include a pegboard for tools and, not only will they have a pegboard for tools, the pegboard will have the silhouette of each tool drawn out, one for each. That quality, theres a word of how these (among other) disparate characteristics hold true for rogers as well as do the counter part characteristic qualities for clarks and scotts do…. whatever that word is

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: the Wakefield Doctrine

The Sixth Sentence -the Wakefield Doctrine- completes the Story

March 23, 2017 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Here it it, ‘pre-Thursday’ already! It’s been my practice to put some words on ‘paper’ as a way to reduce lock-up come tomorrow (Thursday) morning, when zoe’s bloghop ‘Six Sentence Story‘ opens for business. It helps to not have to stare at a blank white page.

The theme, (of the bloghop), is simplicity itself: write a story in six, (and only six), sentences.

This week, our host, zoe, has charged us with creating a story of six sentence length using the word, ‘Point’ as the prompt, reference, starting p….

“No fricken way,” the writer stared at the list of definitions for the word ‘Point’, his confidence leaking like the hollow pillow of a life raft full of holes, CO2 canisters hissing like cats on a merry-go-round.

“I’ve lost it, finally a word without a story… or too many stories,” he felt the faux nausea of the previous nights non-sleep, eight hours of waking up too soon and not getting back to sleep soon enough; like an old movie where a plot point is announced by a display of newspapers being printed and put, full screen, headlines blaring, the jagged dream fragments ran through his head. The only bright spot was the memory of a creative twist to a night of worry-dreams, as he recalled that every other dream centered on relaying someone else’s six sentence story into the mornings collection.

Counting periods with the exaggerated care of a precocious four-year-old, all too aware of the how important it was to the adults, he counted, then remembered another metaphor to contrast the child image with that of an elderly adult, all Sinbad and the Old Man of the Sea, like.

“Whats the point,” he thought, kicking the thorny deja vu chewing at his ankle across the floor and under the bed, he looked for a rhetorical insurance policy, “it’s always a good idea to muddle up the imagery and make it hard to remember if you’ve written this story before, otherwise you’d need pray that the group’s collective memory is all cozy with strangers, like a college dorm on a snowy Thursday night. Satisfied that he kicked at his rhetorical trail enough to evade all but the most ruthless trackers, he smiled with relief and punched in the last (period) .

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘wherein the author sees (and seizes) an opportunity presented by errant comments’

March 20, 2017 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

At times, in the course of writing this blog, a comment will appear that, while intended as a response/reaction/rebuttal or rant, is of such a nature as to form the basis of a new post. Our friend Cynthia, to name just one, has a certain penchant for such commentationing.

So, this weekend, there was, as usual, a TToT post. Josie has continued the tradition of the TToT quite effectively, so much so that we are seeing an increasing number of new ‘faces’*. And, of course, the usual gang of writers, tellers of tales, and, of recent time, travelers. I refer, of course, to Friend of the Doctrine, Kerry.

As has happened increasingly of late, I was short an Item or two for my TToT. I wrote on the Facebook a plea for help. Kerry graciously consented, wrote a comment (for inclusion as an Item on my Saturday post). And therein hangs our tale. (Or, at least, the ‘theme’ of this Monday post). First, Kerry’s Comment:

Sounds good. Let’s all, three of us, all go to dinner together. Love your ideas

And, sure, I’d love to offer up. I have plenty of those Mexico stories. I continue to be thankful for that trip every day. Any in particular you’re looking for?

The mariachi serenade in the park? I already wrote about that experience and submitted it for consideration of an excellent Canadian literary prize. I love to eat rose petals and crickets. I am thankful for all the food I got to eat and the people I got to meet. I love to find a rhyme in and amongst my thankfuls.

***

Huh. Hmm. Where did my comment go? I told of stories from Mexico, per your request, but now I am rewriting.

Thank you, Kerry! I recall the mariachi story, but the ‘eating rose petals and crickets’? Now how could I have missed that! (lol… hold on a second… hey! Kerry’s text to audio app! that last sentence, the italics?? remember: sarcasm comes in many tones. In this case, the tone is one of, ‘I know how I might have forgotten the image of insects ala carte, however there is admiration overlaying the sarcasm… got it? fine. carry on’)

OK, I’m back.

One of the things about Kerry’s comment on her comment (at the Doctrine) that resonated with me was notion of re-writes. For whatever reason, there’ve been a couple of instances in the last week in which I wrote comments (and received comments) with a significant delay. Over at Jo’s Fallen Angel, for example, I kept not seeing my comment register… speaking of the Wakefield Doctrine

lol

(yeah, there really are no situations, (in life, virtual or real), that cannot be enhanced with the application of our favorite personality theory.)

In any event, whenever I do that, i.e. write a comment, hit publish, come back a few hours/the next day, to read replies and see that my comment is missing I have two immediate and nearly simultaneous** reactions: a) ‘oh man, they’re gonna think I’m blowing them off, reading and commenting only on a few and still looking for them to comment on mine’ and 2) ‘maybe my comment was deleted…blocked even! should I write another comment, which, if it’s my computer messing up, will at least let them know I wrote one or just back out of the room quietly and maybe everyone won’t hate me.’

Did I mention that, in the parlance of the Wakefield Doctrine, I’m a clark? lol yeah, good thing I have this here personality theory here, otherwise I’d be way more reclusive this Monday morning than normal.

Well, time to go, Thank you, Kerry! Not only for the comments, but for the post starter-thought.

* for example, there’s Patricia, and her eponymous blog¹ ‘Patricia’s Place‘ who has joined in the TToT conversation and added a quietly insightful voice

just wanted to see if I could use the word and get away with it

** will offer this question to our more rabid Doctrine aficionados, (I’m looking at you Denise, Cynthia …. Lizzi!!) which of the two reactions comes first?